You have trouble getting across the railway? Well, I wouldn't want to spoil the experience but I'll give you a hint. There's a few openings at a stash near a train at the west of the patrol, albeit an irradiated one.

I also believe in my second (and last :( ) playthough I actually talked my way past the guards. :D

03-10-2012, 07:44 PM

Velko

Very nice! For some reason (possibly related to personal mental health...) I enjoy the plot descriptions the most: "Eventually I made it to the hanger where thingymajigwhatshisface was residing, and after talking to him I was given directions to another man who may or may not know where the guy-I-must-kill is, and who was hiding somewhere near that dog that needed rescuing" was just brilliant.

04-10-2012, 07:29 AM

Wheelz

Day 3

Day 3:

I started the day by setting out from my hanger with the intention of finding the man with the hole, and rescuing that dog. This meant heading west to the abandoned facilities/army base where both of these things were. As a result of all of yesterdays hard work and successful looting I'd managed to aquire a decent amount of anti-radiation drugs and vodka to protect me from the radiation spikes scattered through out the zone.http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59...E8CB9683E1F5A/
(loot!)

When I arrived in the western zone for my quest to kill a man, and the quest to save a dog I was greeted by a stalker who looked like he had important information to share with me. Shortly after he started talking two helicopters flew over and I lost everything he was trying to tell me. Which probably would have been fine, if he hadn't bolted off down the road at full pace straight after. I followed, because I sure as shit wasn't sticking around to find out what made him run so quick. When I caught up I found that a group of stalkers were engaged in a fire-fight with millitary guys that had been dropped off by the choppers.http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59...FD46152728BD5/
(pictured: the fire-fight.)

After repelling the army and catching up with mcStalkerface I was sent into a sewer/dungon to further my quest to kill that guy that mebeforeIgotamnesia wants me kill. It was around this point that I found that I started to die more frequently than I previously had been. Thank god for regularly saving.
About 1/2 way through the sewer/tunnel network I saw somthing.http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59...4151DFA23229A/
(pictured: somthing?)

"well, mum said not to judge a book by it's cover. Maybe he's friendly.."

The 2nd time around I was prepared for mr Invisiblemeanieface, and after emptying multiple clips and getting lucky with some questionable ai-door issues I managed to kill him. and then I tea-bagged him.http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/...5F9EED826EFB6/
(pictured: Mr Invisiblemeanieface.)

After attempting to loot his corpse and discovering he dropped nothing, I continued on my way through the sewer, eventually making it to the hide-out. It was hear I found a few things: The quest item (not very interesting), an AK that had been upgraded to fire faster, and a stalker suit. Just before I reached the exit, and after I'd cleared out a few more bandits, my vision started to get all blurry. And then my mind would leave my body and show me visions of a shadow that looked eerily like mr invisiblemeanieface from earlier. Not wanting to go through that terror again, I left the sewer as quickly as possible.

Upon reaching the light of day I discovered the sewer had spat me out in the middle of the millitary facility in which I was supposed to rescue the dog from. Aided by already being in the middle of the facility, I stealthed my way up to the third floor of the building with the help of my silenced pistol, killing only when neccisary.
It was hear my terrible listening skills led to dissappointment, as I discovered it wasn't a dog I was stealing, but some boring millitary papers. I took the papers, and after setting off some alarms, and dieing a heap of times, I eventually got lucky with more questionable ai-door skills and managed to escape the facility and leave the zone.

After a quick stop at the hanger in the middle of the garbage heaps to sell all the crap I'd collected, I headed on up to bar to talk to someguy about dudewhomustbekilled. Just outside the safe-zone that housed the bar there was a pack of dogs roaming the road, and by the look of it they had managed to kill a couple traveling stalkers already.

"psssht dogs. I've killed invisible bullet sponges, you don't scare me." I thought to myself, before being torn to shreds multiple times. Eventually, with the help of some automatic weapons, I managed to clear out all of the stupid kids and there dam dog(s), and make it to the bar.http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59...3795973F91F93/

I also believe in my second (and last :( ) playthough I actually talked my way past the guards. :D

They just love cash, don't they? :}

04-10-2012, 12:11 PM

Wheelz

Thanks guys, glad you're enjoying it.

Couple things I wanted to add: I'm playing with surround sound, and when I start the game I tend to turn it up a notch - so when I got to that first mutant-man I was proper scared already from the noises in the dark, the only thing I forgot to add to the encounter was the "oh shit why are none of my guns loaded?!" moment that happened in amongst all the rest of it.

It was day 2 before I got a good handle on the radiation thing, as before that I'd just been eating antirads/drinking vodka whenever the game suggested it, which is why I'd manage to get through my entire supply of antirads. As a result, there was a lot of really anxious moments on the 2nd day where I was trying to get loot off of the heaps, but didn't have the antirads to protect me - so I'd do a mad dash in, try find the loot, and then run out hoping the radiation would go away as soon as I'd left the area. Eventually I just scrapped the idea altogether and stuck to looting bandits.

Also, it wasn't till day 3 that I worked out how the agro worked: theirs a sound bar and a visibility (or it might just be agro) bar which can set off the enemy. This made stealth a possibilty, although a difficult one as I've found that A) my silenced pistol never hits where I'm aiming. and B) the view/agro bar can be a strange beast at times. The result of this is that I spent close to two hours saving/reloading and learning patrol routes as I tried to stealth my way into the millitary building.

ed: I also took Kyrieee's advice and turned off the crosshair and distance marker thingy, not for the added immersion, but because I wasn't using either of them and they were only serving to bug me/ruin my screenshots.

On the topic of those bandits, are you guys sure you're not thinking of the guards between the scrap heap and the stalker-town? Orginally I was told I'd have to pay them, but as I got closer they said If I helped them defend their position from mutant pigs they'd let me in for free, and then they went all "lol j/k" after I helped. But then when I was talking to the guard to get through he was all "Oh your here about the barman? that's cool, free ride for you!".
So I'm not sure what was up with that.

04-10-2012, 12:27 PM

Voon

Uh... I don't think those guys are bandits, dude. They're called "Duty". People like them, for some reason

04-10-2012, 02:31 PM

Mana_Garmr

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wheelz

On the topic of those bandits, are you guys sure you're not thinking of the guards between the scrap heap and the stalker-town? Orginally I was told I'd have to pay them, but as I got closer they said If I helped them defend their position from mutant pigs they'd let me in for free, and then they went all "lol j/k" after I helped. But then when I was talking to the guard to get through he was all "Oh your here about the barman? that's cool, free ride for you!".
So I'm not sure what was up with that.

The military guys at the rail bridge in the first area can be paid to let you past. I think you have to make sure your guns aren't drawn or the get very angry very quickly. They also, as far as I remember, charge you every time you go through so it's generally better to either kill them or bypass them like you did.

04-10-2012, 02:43 PM

Tikey

Great read.

04-10-2012, 03:05 PM

Mohorovicic

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wheelz

On the topic of those bandits, are you guys sure you're not thinking of the guards between the scrap heap and the stalker-town? Orginally I was told I'd have to pay them, but as I got closer they said If I helped them defend their position from mutant pigs they'd let me in for free, and then they went all "lol j/k" after I helped. But then when I was talking to the guard to get through he was all "Oh your here about the barman? that's cool, free ride for you!".
So I'm not sure what was up with that.

That's Duty, not bandits.

They will let you in when you're at that point in the main quest. Otherwise you can just pay them(I think. I never tried going to Rostok beforehand).

Soldiers under the bridge in Cordon can be bribed too - despite the fact they are marked as hostiles they will not attack you and you can talk to their leader. But their AI is quite wonky and I wouldn't recommend trying it more than once when you approach them for the first time from the south.

04-10-2012, 09:29 PM

Wheelz

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mana_Garmr

The military guys at the rail bridge in the first area can be paid to let you past. I think you have to make sure your guns aren't drawn or the get very angry very quickly. They also, as far as I remember, charge you every time you go through so it's generally better to either kill them or bypass them like you did.

Ah right, that would explain why we didn't get along.

05-10-2012, 11:13 AM

Velko

I'm a little bit disappointed by the fact that it wasn't a dog you were supposed to steal. Documents? How boring. Stealing some general's chihuahua would've been something different.

05-10-2012, 01:26 PM

BillButNotBen

Did I miss it, or did you somehow bypass the first mission where you get sent to a compound with a dozen bad guys when you have only a crappy pistol and no armor? the point were i very nearly gave up so many times.

05-10-2012, 02:15 PM

Kelron

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillButNotBen

Did I miss it, or did you somehow bypass the first mission where you get sent to a compound with a dozen bad guys when you have only a crappy pistol and no armor? the point were i very nearly gave up so many times.

Apparently the AI stalkers did it for him. Which is an extreme fluke, they usually die in 10 seconds.

05-10-2012, 10:07 PM

NecroKnight

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillButNotBen

Did I miss it, or did you somehow bypass the first mission where you get sent to a compound with a dozen bad guys when you have only a crappy pistol and no armor? the point were i very nearly gave up so many times.

Really? I didn't have any problems with that mission and I also rather enjoyed it.

05-10-2012, 10:16 PM

gundato

It depends on the difficulty setting, what mods (Specifically weapon and AI mods), and how good you are at using "real" cover and ambushes.

That first mission can either be trivial, or the hardest thing in SoC.

05-10-2012, 10:29 PM

Finicky

Nothing beats stalker:soc for atmosphere and immersion (like, a meaningful form of true immersion, not the B grade "AAA" hoorah theme park horseshit in all those 'gritty' xbox games).
Nothing even gets close.

And yes make sure you keep multiple saves AND make sure to keep a save of every single point where you move to a new storyline or area.
Even with the complete mod the scripting and AI are often horrible broken and just reloading a slightly earlier save may not fix it.
I quit playing when the scripting/AI killed a main quest npc within seconds every time I exited some sewers before I could get to him, causing the game over screen. Once the immersion is broken and you have to replay large pieces of the game the game quickly loses its charm.

If what is left of the stalker team ever manages to release another stalker game I hope they get rid of the escort quests.

09-10-2012, 09:48 AM

Diesel-

I beat both SOC and COP multiple times. SOC is my fav FPS of all time and probably best PC game ever made.